In fact, Elain, Lina, and Mai had seen nothing about anything bad happening at the Gathering. But Elain insisted Ain, Brodey, and Cail go, along with Jan, Rick, Kael, and Micah. Her dad would stay behind to run the ranch in their absence, and Blackie, Jocko, and Lacey would meet the others out there.
The night before they left, Ain looked a little worried. “You’re sure everything’s all right?”
“Positive. Seer says.”
The next morning, Elain and her mom, with the exception of Joss—the nickname her mom and dad had finally compromised upon for their son—had the house to themselves after the men had driven themselves to Port Charlotte a couple of hours earlier. Ortega was meeting them at the airport there in his private jet on his way out west. Blackie, Jocko, and Lacey were flying commercial from Maine, and would meet everyone at Yellowstone later that evening.
Juju and Bea quietly lay in the floor, staring up at Elain. They always looked a little bereft when they didn’t have BettLynn and the Beasts to play with.
It made Elain miss Jasper. He’d reminded her a little of Brodey in his shifted form, although she knew the dog wasn’t a shifter. Still, it was like he really had understood what she’d said and responded accordingly.
Or, maybe it was just baby hormones.
She was waddling her way out of the kitchen to hit the bathroom when a piercing, head-splitting pain hit her, accompanied by a shrieking scream. Letting out a cry of her own, she grabbed the doorway frame and held on tight to keep from hitting the floor.
And at the base of what would be her tail were she shifted, a nasty, tingling feeling, like her leg had fallen asleep, now rolled and burned.
Her mom had been washing dishes at the kitchen sink and turned when she heard Elain. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
Elain lunged for the table, grabbing a chair and shakily dropping into it as the pain finally began to recede. She wasn’t sure, it almost sounded like someone had screamed help me in her brain.
Worried, Carla hurried to her side. “Elain? Do I need to call 911?”
She grabbed her mom’s arm, caught between the abating pain and the humor that her mom might call an ambulance for her wolf shape-shifting Seer daughter. “No,” she gasped. “Call Ain.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t answer. Neither did Brodey or Cail, meaning they were likely already in the air.
But Mai staggered through the door a couple of minutes later, looking pale and shaking. “Elain!”
“You, too?”
Lina arrived shortly after that. Mai and Elain were at the kitchen table when she ran into the house. “Please tell me you two just got hit by that?”
They nodded.
“What the fuck was that?” Lina asked.
“Um, sweetie?” Carla interrupted. “Where are the Beasts?”
“Zack’s got them.”
“Jim’s got BettLynn,” Mai said before Carla could ask.
Carla nodded and addressed her next comment to Lina. “Go see if Baba Yaga is back yet,” she suggested.
Lina immediately disappeared.
“I think it was Lacey,” Mai said, her voice still trembling. “I’d swear it was.”
“She’s going to the Gathering with Jocko and Blackie,” Elain said. “If there was something wrong, someone would have called us.”
“Not if they’re in the air,” Mai said.
“An airplane,” Carla reasoned, “is probably the safest place to be right now. Not much someone can sneak on board one of those.”
“Just a goddess who can throw fire- and iceballs,” Elain snarked.
“Or dragon shifters,” Mai added.
“Or cockatrice,” Elain said, her tone growly.
A moment later, Lina returned, shaking her head. “She’s not there.”
“Callie didn’t go,” Mai said. “Call her.”
Carla made Elain stay seated while she went to get her phone for her. When they told Callie what had happened, she gasped. “Let me see if Sir and everyone are on the plane yet.” She hung up and called back less than a minute later. “No good. They’ve already left.”
“So we can’t talk to them until they land in Spokane.” Already, the pain and screaming sound had faded in Elain’s mind.
“Sorry, no.”
“Crap.” Elain rubbed at her forehead.
The women sat there for an hour, still trying to figure it out when Callie called Elain back, a slightly hysterical tone in her voice. “Elain, Lacey didn’t go to the Gathering. Kitty just called me asking if we had a spare key for her house so she could go get Jasper’s food. She said Jocko told her Lacey backed out this morning, but was still going somewhere. I called Lacey’s house and cell and she’s not answering. I popped there real fast, just for a second because I didn’t want to leave the baby alone, and yelled for her, but she’s not there. I didn’t have time to search, but her car is still there.”
“Crap.” Elain relayed the information to the other two women.
“We have to get to Maine,” Lina said. “Right now.”
“Easy for you to say,” Mai chastised. “You can do the poofy thing.”
“I’ve never done it distances like that before,” she protested. “Just short ones, and to Baba Yodelnoggin’s place. Remember the meth lab? I rode a fricking tiger shifter there, if you’ll recall.”
“Try,” Elain growled. “Go to Callie’s.”
Lina looked uncertain. “I don’t know how to do it accurately over long distances,” she admitted. “Why the hell do you think I don’t normally do it? It’s usually only luck when I manage it in the first place, unless it’s to see the fricking old hag.”
Callie was still on the line. Elain spoke to her. “Call Kitty back. Get her and Wally over to Lacey’s. Oscar, any shifter who’s not at the Gathering.”
“Right.”
Elain hung up and glared at Lina, her patience for her friend’s fear quickly waning as her inner Alpha lunged, wanting to fix whatever this thing was they’d just had dumped on them. “Go. To. Callie’s. Right now.”
“But I don’t know how!”
The edict’s low, growly tone burst forth from somewhere deep inside Elain. Instinctive. “Callie’s. Now.”
Lina let out a terrified meep as she disappeared.
Mai was even leaning back away from the table and Elain. “Um, Elain? I love you, but please dial it back a notch.”
Elain forcibly reined in her Alpha as her phone rang.
Callie.
Elain answered. “Yeah?”
It was actually Lina. “Um, okay, Elain, you’re a fucking bitch, and I mean that goddamned literally and with all love and affection, but whatever the hell you did worked. I’m here.”
“Oh. Good.” Elain hung up on her and had turned to her mom when her phone rang again.
Lina.
“What?” Elain asked, losing patience. “Why are you not on your way to Lacey’s?”
“My fucking cell phone and purse are on your goddamned table. Mind ordering them to me, too?”
Elain blushed. “Sorry. Can Callie come get them?”
“Oh. Yeah. Bye.”
A moment later, Callie appeared in their kitchen. “Hey, Elain. Mai. Mom.” She hugged them. “Funny thing just happened—”
Elain shoved the items into her hands. “Wait!” She heaved herself up and out of her chair and raced into the bedroom, where she grabbed the padded zip-up case holding her nine millimeter and a spare, full clip from the gun safe in their closet. She waddled back out to the kitchen. “Here, take this, too.”
Callie stared at it. “I don’t think she shoots. She’s got the fireball thing.”
Elain was beyond pleasantries, her Alpha still hovering close to the surface. “Ask me if I fucking care! At least it’ll be there for me when we figure out how to get ourselves there.” She shoved the case into Callie’s arms.
“Oh. Okay.”
“Now get people rounded up. We need to find Lacey.”
She disappeared.
“Great,” Mai said. “We’ve got firepower, literally, and no way to get to Maine.”
“Says you. Go home, grab your purse, and change clothes.” Mai was wearing shorts, perfect for the warm Florida day. At least Lina had been in jeans, but Elain thought she’d been wearing sandals. “And run over to Lina’s. Get her some sneakers and socks, and a jacket.” Elain started scrolling through the contacts list on her phone.
“Why?”
“Maine in March. Do the math.” She headed toward the bedroom to change her own clothes as she made the call she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to make.
He answered on the first ring, his smooth British accent already soothing her. “Good morning, Elain.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Ryan, but I’ve got an emergency here.”
He immediately sounded on alert. “Hold on.”
She pulled up short just before her bedroom door.
It was that, or run into the man himself who’d appeared out of thin air and was now standing right in front of her.
Mai and Carla both let out startled screams from the kitchen.
Elain, however, breathed a sigh of relief and choked back the sobs that wanted to roll from her as she ended the call. “Hey, thanks. Walk with me.” She looked over her shoulder at Mai and tried to keep her tone lighter than she felt. “Why are you still here, sweetie? Get it in gear. Chop-chop.”
Mai warily started moving toward the front door without taking her eyes off Ryan.
Elain stepped around Ryan and into the bedroom. Fortunately he seemed to be a quick study and closed the door behind him after he followed her.
“What’s going on, Elain?” he cautiously asked. “You sound a whisker’s breath from turning into a four-legged version of yourself.”
She didn’t bother being bashful. He was, after all, the fricking Devil. She told him what they suspected was going on while she shucked her clothes and grabbed more appropriate ones from the closet. After pulling on a different shirt, she rooted through her maternity clothes for pants. She swore when her maternity jeans wouldn’t zip and she had to resort to stretchy sweats.
Ryan looked grim when she finished the story. “You need me to transport you and Mai to Maine, correct?”
“Yep. Callie can’t take people, only things.” She sat on the edge of the bed, her socks and tennis shoes in hand, and held up a foot. “Mind helping me out here?”
He smirked as he helped her get her socks and shoes on. “Your men are all in the air?”
“Yep. No one will rip your arm off for helping a preggo wolf get her sneakers on.”
“Oh, you are a feisty one, aren’t you?”
“Imagine what I’d be like at full power.”
“I’d rather not. You’re quite intimidating enough as it is.”
“Really? Aw, how sweet.”
He shook his head, laughing as he tied the first shoe and then moved to her other foot. “Take a jacket. It’s rather chilly.” He seemed reluctant to say the next part. “You do realize this is all I can do, right? Eh, transportation, not the shoes.”
She nodded. “I know. I wouldn’t be asking for your help if this wasn’t an emergency. I know you can’t help us out with our actual trouble.”
“I just wanted to make sure I was clear.”
“Crystal.” She paused. “I’m sorry I’m such a bitch right now. I’m just really worried about Lacey.”
“Understandable, dear.” He finished with her other foot. She grabbed a jacket, a change of clothes, and shoved several spare pairs of underwear into a backpack.
He stared at her.
“I’m pregnant, okay? Sometimes accidents happen.”
Mai was still gone when Elain emerged from the bedroom with Ryan. He walked over to Carla, hand outstretched. “How do you do, madame?”
“That’s my mom,” Elain warned. “Mated, married, and very much a mom.”
“I’m being polite, my dear. Heel, momma wolf.”
Elain laughed.
He returned his attention to Carla. “Ryan Ausar,” he said.
She finally let him take her hand. He gave her a prim and professional handshake before turning to Elain. “Satisfied?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“I was right. You are the strongest, aren’t you?”
“I apparently ordered Lina to Maine with a wolf edict when she didn’t know how to do it. It shouldn’t have worked on her, because we’re not mates, duh, but it did.”
Another laugh. “Brilliant!”
Ten minutes later, Mai looked more than a little terrified as she stood with Elain in the living room. “I’ll take Elain first,” Ryan told Mai, “and come back for you. I could take you both at once, but I think given your fear, I’d rather do it one at a time.”
Mai nodded, tightly clutching the backpack she’d shoved hers and Lina’s things into. “By the way, Zack and Jim are both fit to be tied. You sure I shouldn’t stay?”
“I’ll handle them,” Carla said. “You girls go. I’ll keep trying to call the guys.”
Elain decided to set a good example. “Ryan is a stand-up guy, sweetie. I promise, this is the best way.”
Ryan took Elain’s hand. Before she could fully blink, she was standing in Callie’s living room.
Lina turned around and let out a startled cry. “Son of a bitch! A little warning would be nice!”
“Nice to see you again, too, Lina,” Ryan snarked. He disappeared. A moment later, he reappeared with Mai, holding both her hands. She wobbled a little on their arrival and he grabbed her elbows to steady her.
“See?” Elain said, trying to stay calm. “Piece of cake.”
Mai nodded, still looking terrified.
“Right.” Ryan turned to Elain. “Keep me posted. I know I can’t help with everything, but it never hurts to ask if you feel you’re against a wall.”
Elain hugged him. “I know. Thanks again.”
“Good luck.”
He disappeared.
Lina shook her head as she walked over to Elain and handed her the gun. “You know, that guy is a cutie, but I suspect whoever has to report to him must have fucking balls of steel. And smart thinking, getting in touch with him. I totally blew the call on that one.”
“No time for that now,” Elain said. “Anything?”
Callie reappeared. “Oh… How’d you get here?”
“The Devil’s in the details,” Elain quipped. “What’d you find out?”
“Well, for starters, with most of the Clan on their way to the Gathering, I don’t have a freaking babysitter. So I can’t go help you. I feel guilty enough I left for the few seconds I went to Lacey’s earlier.” She ran to her purse and dug out her keys, tossing them to Elain. “Take my car. Everyone will meet you at Lacey’s.”
“Thanks!”
With Elain too pregnant to comfortably fit behind the wheel, and Mai still too shaken to drive, Lina got to do the honors. Elain climbed into the backseat and gave Mai shotgun. “Don’t kill us, girlfriend.”
“I won’t,” Lina grumbled as she fastened her seat belt and cranked the engine. “But if anyone’s hurt Lacey, I damn sure will kill them.”
Chapter Sixteen
They pulled up to Lacey’s at the same time Kitty and Wally arrived. Her front door was unlocked.
Elain immediately ran inside, gun cocked and ready in her hand.
She also smelled what she feared—cockatrice.
Kitty’s nose wrinkled. “Fuckers came onto our goddamned land and took our fucking Seer? That’s it—they die.” Rage washed off the wolf, practically visible to Elain, like heat shimmers rippling through her aura.
“They were already going to die,” Wally growled.
“They’re going to die more,” Kitty promised.
From the scent tracks, it appeared the men had approached the house from the back and took Lacey out the front door and into an awaiting car. Elain walked around to the backyard, sniffing out the different scent trails in the
slushy ground when Lina yelled for her.
“We’re on the move,” she called out. “Let’s go. The others are already pulling out.”
Elain hesitated. “No.”
“No? They said it’s the strongest scent trail.”
“No.” She stared at the ground, a flash of a scene coming to mind.
Yellowstone, and not from her point of view.
As seen through Mercedes’ eyes. Outside the cabins, after Jim was kidnapped. Everyone else following a false trail while Mercedes—who knew what she was dealing with—found the true trail.
Elain placed a hand on her belly when the baby kicked.
Thank you.
She turned to Lina. “Get Mai, and get your sneakers on. They went this way.”
Lina frowned. “We’re going after them by ourselves?”
“Fuckin’ A we are.” She clumsily knelt and placed her hand on one of the clear footprints. Closing her eyes, she cleared her mind and willed a vision to come to her.
She couldn’t see much at first. Then, as she trusted her lupine nose to sort out the scents, she realized there were three distinct male cockatrice, and hints of one familiar female scent.
Aliah.
Fuck.
She also saw where they were heading, and knew they had to get there overland. Elain lumbered to her feet. “Come on. We have to go. Now. Call Kitty and the others and tell them to get to the fire road and meet us at that rock pile near the cave.” Elain shouldered her backpack and turned to head east out of the backyard, her instincts guiding her. Cockatrice were very skilled masters of laying false trails.
But they weren’t smarter than her.
Elain pulled out her cell phone and texted all the numbers she had for Ortega and the other Montalvos to Callie, followed by a phone call. “Listen. Get hold of someone in Bolivia, find out how to call that jet, and get it turned back this way. Unless or until they hear back from us, they’re to go straight to that rock pile we found, the one near the cave.”
“On it.”
Elain ended the call and paused, waiting until Lina and Mai caught up.
“Kitty said they’ll meet us there,” Mai told her. “Stupid question. Why aren’t we going with the others and taking the shorter way?”
Triple Cross [Triple Trouble 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 20